My name is Steve Martin. I'm the founder and CEO of a company called Pond Technologies. I have to confess, I may have misunderstood the format of this presentation a little bit, from the discussion I had earlier. My impression was that we were meant to discuss sort of broadly those kinds of innovation vehicles and policy instruments that could be implemented by government to help assist the adoption of new and sustainable technologies.
In that regard, my impression was that it was to be more of a discussion than a formal presentation. I do have a formal presentation, which I can give, but I think it would be more useful if you heard my comments more directly from someone who's doing innovation on a daily basis, developing technologies that can help the environment.
My company, Pond Technologies, uses algae to mitigate carbon emissions from smokestacks. We take untreated stack gas emissions and put them through bioreactors that were designed and built in this country, using technology that actually came out of the fibre optic industry a number of years ago.
Surprising as it may seem, the key technology that we have came from a heads-up display of a fighter jet, designed by me about 20 years ago. That technology allows us to grow algae, strange as it sounds, faster than anyone else, and to take carbon emissions out of any arbitrary smokestack and turn them into something that's green, literally.
The algae that results is useful for any number of purposes. It's a very high protein animal feed; it can be used for soil amendment; and it can be used for biofuel.
We have a number of partners across the country that include Canadian Natural Resources on the oil sands. Most importantly, our partner is the National Research Council of Canada, through the algae carbon conversion program announced a number of years ago. We are the sole technology provider to that program.
We have an ongoing demonstration site at St. Marys Cement in Ontario, where their stack emits over half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. We're able to take a small portion of that—small because of some of the impediments in existence for innovation adoption—and turn it literally into a green product. The National Research Council participates with us on that.
In answering the questions that were presented to me, I was asked what the risks were that government could take on within its jurisdiction to help with the adoption of clean technologies. One of the things I like to say is that industry is very much looking to adopt clean technologies. It just has to make financial sense.
One of the unfortunately realities is that, in the absence of regulations or other instruments wielded by government, there is nothing cheaper than polluting. The cheapest thing you can do is pollute, and accountants like cheap things.
If the government has an opportunity to implement real taxation, carbon pricing, or something in a universal way that doesn't impede industry but in fact rewards the adoption of new innovations, I think you'll find very willing participants across all the jurisdictions that you oversee.
We are not limited to our work with Canadian Natural Resources, the National Research Council, and St. Marys Cement. We have also worked with U. S. Steel Canada, now Stelco, and we've also used our technology on very small combined heat and power plants. Our solution is applicable across the board, but we're only one part of an ecosystem of solutions that are available to help mitigate carbon emissions.
The next question I was asked was what the best practice policy instruments are for de-risking clean technology in the natural resource sector. I would say it is a direct understanding of the limited capital available for implementing technologies.
All of the large final emitters across this country, resource-based or otherwise, exist in largely commodity-based industries. They're squeezed at both ends. They don't have free capital for implementing technologies, particularly if they're new.
We have a solution that works. It has been validated. The National Research Council is behind us. We are semi-finalists in the Carbon XPRIZE. We're recipients of many government dollars in terms of support. There is still a barrier to the application of our technology for industry. They just can't bear the cost.
The term best practice implies that there's an answer. I don't think there is a best practice; I think there are practices.
In terms of looking at new policy instruments, governments need to be very open-minded, see what other jurisdictions have done, and be flexible. Do what works, drop what doesn't, and don't stick to any one plan. I think the best policy in this case would be to be innovative.
I was asked what instruments exist in Canada. There are direct taxation and carbon pricing, either implemented or proposed. The direct taxation, as it was implemented in British Columbia, gutted the cement industry. I don't think that was the intention, but it nevertheless did it. Whether that had a positive impact on environment or not due to reducing carbon emissions is questionable. It's not really known to me if that's the right way to go; nevertheless, that is one of the instruments the government has.
Regulations in general have to exist, though, within the confines of what's available to industry. We could simply regulate now that industry no longer emit carbon, but we all know that what you're doing is regulating them out of business, so there has to be a way to foster innovation.
One of the things that's come up in my own company—and we've raised tens of millions of dollars—is that government likes to invest in new technologies. They're terrific. One of the problems is that government wants to be the last dollar in. There's a dearth of investment in Canada in technologies. It's been the same for years. When fibre optics exploded, we found this technology to be very interesting to Canadians, and we developed many companies that were very good. Since then, however, we have been really good at investing in mines.
When I go out to seek investment, I meet with investment bankers, and they say to me, “You're not a mine.” I say, “No, we do technology. We can help the mining industry.” They say, “That's fantastic, but you're not a mine. We don't have models to invest in you. We don't really know what we're doing.” If there were a government program or a government initiative that could encourage investment at the front end—and I'm not talking about dollar-for-dollar matching, I'm talking about venture capital from government—that would be very helpful.
What institutions can the federal government leverage to de-risk clean technology adoption by natural resource firms? I'll tell you: the National Research Council. They've been an extraordinary group of people to work with. I can't believe the researchers they have there. Industry—and you probably hear it a lot—does not have a very high expectation for government in terms of their productivity and what they're doing. I think that's entirely wrong, as evidenced by the work done by the NRC. I've never worked with a bunch of people who were as good at what they're doing. They have a 60-plus year history in doing the work that I do. I discovered them by accident. Any support that can be provided to the National Research Council....
One of the things I would recommend for this committee is to start to advertise what they do. When I go to meet with investment bankers and I say, “We work with the NRC”, they say, “Who's that?” That's a big problem. It's a billion-dollar organization with 4,000 researchers who are very good at their jobs.
The last thing is what recommendations I have for the Government of Canada that the committee should consider for their final report. I think they should consider an ongoing consultation with heavy industry, the people who know what they're doing in terms of emitting carbon and what they have to do in terms of the realities of business. If you can have a permanent committee that looks at these regulations and is quite flexible in how they move forward, you'd be well served.
I would say that's the end of my little monologue.